5 reasons to watch Final Destination Bloodline + 5 movies to gear you up for Final Destination Bloodshed

#1 The return of the late Tony Todd to the horror franchise

Horror veteran Tony Todd's character, William Bludworth, is returning in the latest Final Destination franchise. The reprisal will follow why he knows so much about escaping death. The new release will also curtail the background and how the character is connected with the franchise's core. Todd has appeared in all franchises except the fourth, 2009's The Final Destination.

Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025). Source: IMDb

#2 A Horror Franchise Back to Life After 14 Years

The horror franchise returns after 14 years since its last release. Final Destination: Bloodlines will give the audience a thrill of fatalities, even more than they have experienced in previous franchises.

#3 Death’s rules with a twist

Final Destination terrified audiences with the fear of uncontrollable accidents in common areas. The sixth movie revamps the franchise. The twist hinted in the title, Bloodlines, introduces a hereditary element. It suggests that Death may not just be hunting individuals but legacies. Your family's past could now affect your fate, making survival even more complex.

Brec Bassinger in Final Destination: Bloodlines. Source: IMDb

#4 An 18-year-old girl as the Protagonist

The reboot of this death saga will follow an 18-year-old girl as the protagonist. In Bloodlines, the storyline focuses on Stefani, an 18-year-old girl with visions, a college student who begins to have nightmares about her family’s deaths. When Stefani visions a deadly tower accident in the 1960s, she asks her grandmother, Iris, for clarity.

#5 Added Emotional Weight

Final Destination: Bloodline centers on the premise of family, which will give it emotional weight. The opening scene at the Skyview Restaurant Tower, where grandmother Iris's premonition gets in the way of Death’s plans, signals the same frequency of “Death cannot be cheated.” The movie picks up on Iris’s granddaughter and follows the concept of family.

5 Movies to gear up before Final Destination Bloodlines

Tony Todd in Final Destination: Bloodlines. Source: IMDb

The franchise ended in 2011 with the surprise prequel Final Destination 5, with inescapable deaths and some unresolved plots. The sixth series, Final Destination Bloodlines, will answer who Tony Todd’s character, William Bludworth, really is. Do you follow the franchise, and will you be watching the new release? Here are five movies ​to watch in order before Final Destination: Bloodline.

Saw (2004)

How far will you go to stay alive? Much like the Final Destination series, the Saw, directed by James Wan, is about brutal deaths and relishing the gore on screen. While in the Final Destination the death chooses people who are meant to die, here the killer targets people he believes squander or waste their lives. To stay alive, the characters have to make decisions with life-or-death consequences. This movie started what would become a long-running horror franchise (10+ films) and became a massive cult hit.

Leigh Whannell in Saw. Credits: IMDb

Director: James Wan

Written by: Leigh Whannell & James Wan

Awards:

Pegasus Audience Award- Best Director

Special Jury and Youth Jury Award at the Gerardmer Film Festival

Where to watch

Summary: Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam Stanheight wake up shackled in opposite corners of a grimy bathroom. Between them lies a dead body holding a revolver and a tape recorder. Behind all this is a mysterious person named Jigsaw, who places his victims in elaborate traps where they must perform disturbing acts to survive. The film builds to a shocking twist ending, revealing a secret behind the “dead body” in the room.

The movie was filmed in 18 days on a tight budget of about $1.2 million. Saw began as a 9-minute short by James Wan and Leigh Whannell to pitch the concept to studios. That short features a prototype version of the now-iconic reverse bear trap. Co-writer Leigh Whannell wrote the story while having anxiety about brain cancer.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

This second installment weaves the death trap formula of the Final Destination franchise. The horror without a haunting killer, bloodsucking vampire, or brain-eating zombies sets this franchise apart from other movies in the genre. The intricate direction of an invisible antagonist that orchestrates violence by leveraging everyday items is also featured in Final Destination 2.

Ali Larter, A.J. Cook, and Michael Landes in Final Destination 2. Source: IMDb

Director: David R. Ellis

Story by: J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bress, Jeffrey Reddick

Based on: Characters by Jeffrey Reddick

Awards:

Nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film in 2004

Nominated for Teen Choice Award in 2003

Where to watch

Summary: Final Destination 2 introduces the new protagonist, Kimberly Corman. She has a premonition of a disaster on the highway and saves lives, cheating death. This installment's appealing visuals include logs rolling off a timber truck and gas tanks exploding, building the horror and suspense on the franchise premise. What connects the movie with the 2000s release is when she tracks down the Clear Rivers.

Characters refer to the events of Flight 180, and Clear Rivers, the only survivor from the first film, returns to help the new group. The characters are dying in reverse order from how they would have died in the highway crash. The infamous airbag impalement scene (where a woman’s head gets slammed into a metal pipe) was almost cut for being too unbelievable, but test audiences loved the shock value.

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

This psychological thriller unlocks the concept of time travel abilities and the map of cheating death, paralleling the Final Destination storyline. In a similar tone to the Final Destination, chaos theory loosely inspires this movie. The Butterfly Effect explores the idea that visiting the past can cause a ripple effect on the present and future.

Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart in The Butterfly Effect. Source: IMDb

Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

Written by: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti

Awards:

Won the Pegasus Audience Award at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in 2004

Nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film in 2004

Where to watch

Summary: The movie follows Evan Treborn, who suffers from blackouts during traumatic childhood events. As an adult, he discovers that he can travel back in time by reading his journals and inhabiting his younger self’s body. However, each time he changes the past, the future worsens unexpectedly. Ultimately, Evan realizes that the only way to save everyone is to erase himself from their lives.

In the director’s cut, Evan travels back to before his birth and strangles himself with his umbilical cord in the womb, preventing his existence. However, the theatrical version had a different ending. This movie popularized a more serious, emotionally intense approach to time-travel stories in mainstream cinema.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko features elements of time travel and alternate universes. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal. The added frames of vortexes and mysterious talking rabbits make this movie more of a psychological horror movie. In this classic science fiction thriller, the nature of reality is challenged and the idea of liberty is explored through the eyes of Donnie Darko, a teenage boy.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko (2001). Source: IMDb

Director: Richard Kelly

Written by: Richard Kelly

Cinematography: Steven Poster

Awards:

Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor in 2002

Young Hollywood Award for Breakthrough Performance - Male in 2002

Silver Scream Award in 2022

Where to watch

Summary: The movie follows a malfunctioning high school student who experiences visions of a masked rabbit after narrowly escaping a 747 jet engine that fell directly through his bedroom. In his vision, he has a nocturnal visitor who leads him on sleepwalking expeditions. Director Richard Kelly's talents excel in framing a disturbing setup out of the ordinary materials of real life.

Donnie Darko is embedded with many 80s pop culture detritus, evoking a foggy, nostalgic atmosphere. The dark theme of death and vision is also introduced in the movie, such as when a rabbit-wizard reaches out to Donnie, saying that the end of the world is near. In the aftermath, he can see timelines and semi-transparent liquid arrows that seem to lead them into the future.

The Gift (2015)

This psychological thriller explores the storyline of a married couple and an acquaintance from Simon's past. After the encounter with Gordo, the couple is thrown into a terrifying world that includes mysterious encounters and a gift. The movie builds on a stalker thriller for a recently relocated married couple from Chicago to the hills of L.A.’s East Side. The movie tweaks with the Final Destination storyline of being dangerously chased by past events and encounters.

Jason Bateman, Joel Edgerton, and Rebecca Hall in The Gift. Source: IMDb

Director: Joel Edgerton 

Written by: Joel Edgerton

Cinematography: Eduard Grau

Awards:

Nominated for Best Thriller Film at the Saturn Award in 2016

Nominated for Best Thriller Film at the Empire Awards in 2016

Where to watch 

Summary: Simon, played by Jason Bateman, and his wife, played by Rebecca Hall, spiraled into a horror world when the mystery surrounding the encounter with Gordon and the gifts at the door loomed over them. The screenplay also plays out trickily and cleverly, focusing on the line of doubt, insecurity, and second thoughts in a happy marriage when a third party is introduced.

Director Joel Edgerton plays on our familiarity with the suspense and horror genre tropes with smash cuts, insinuating music, and camera creeping down empty hallways. The movies also excel in creating the ’90s vibe, which is reinforced by a conspicuous lack of smartphone use. “The Gift” opens with an unsettling reunion dinner with Gordon, someone Simon, the protagonist, knew from high school.

People also ask

How do you watch Final Destination in order?

According to the storyline, the Final Destination series can be watched in the following order:

1. Final Destination 5 (2011)

2. Final Destination (2000)

3. Final Destination 2 (2003)

4. Final Destination 3 (2006)

5. The Final Destination (2009)

6. Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)

Why is Final Destination 4 called The Final Destination?

In its initial release, it was envisioned as the final chapter, with the title and 3D effects; hence, the title was The Final Destination.

Will Final Destination 6 be a sequel?

The 2025 release of the franchise will be a reboot instead of a sequel and will introduce a "fresh" approach to the franchise formula.

Who is the killer in Final Destination?

There is no killer in the Final Destination franchise as death hunts the survivors.

Can you escape Death in Final Destination?

Even though premonitions have been used to save the characters' lives, no one can escape death. Hence, the movie conveys that “Death does not like to be cheated.”